


An August Haunting

by jolybird



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: hp_creatures, Creature Fic, Gen, ghost - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-22 02:08:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8268736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jolybird/pseuds/jolybird
Summary: On a nondescript summer day before Harry’s fourth year at Hogwarts Harry gets a completely unexpected visitor and things start to get a little paranormal at number four Privet Drive.





	

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:** [93](http://hp-creatures.livejournal.com/267482.html?thread=1468890#t1468890)
> 
> **Creature:** Ghost
> 
>  **Warnings or Content:** minor child neglect--the Dursleys are here
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** This creation is based on characters and situations created and owned by J. K. Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made, no copyright or trademark infringement, or offense is intended. 
> 
> **Notes:** Thanks Britt for beta-ing this. You’re wonderful. I saw this prompt and instantly KNEW I had to write it!!

Harry frowned out the window towards where he could see Mrs. Figg’s house from the next street over. She was bustling around in her living room, hoovering or dancing or chasing after one of her many cats. He scrubbed at a frying pan that he had previously cooked breakfast turkey sausages in. His Uncle Vernon had brought them home proudly the day before saying how healthy they were and how Dudley would be able to eat them even on his diet (Uncle Vernon and Dudley both had then scowled at the taste although Harry couldn’t tell a difference). The water from the faucet sputtered and then stopped, leaving Harry with a soapy dish. He frowned and hit it but it did nothing to restore waterflow. 

Rolling his eyes and sighing, Harry wiped his hands on a towel and then knelt down to look under the sink, he hit the pipes a few times, just to see if it would do any good. It didn’t, of course, so he reached around to see if he had left a wrench below the sink. Before he could find it, however, there was a high pitched giggling and the water started flowing again. 

The shock of the familiarity of the laughter caused Harry to hit his head on the counter in his rush to stand back up. As he stood, holding his head and wincing, he felt all the blood rush from his face. 

Standing in the middle of his Aunt and Uncle’s kitchen was Moaning Myrtle. 

All Harry could heart was a high pitched buzzing noise and he sudden had a flashback to Dobby banging his head against Harry’s dresser. He looked around himself wildly, he thought his Aunt and Uncle were out but he didn’t know if Dudley went with them or not. 

"Hello, Harry." Myrtle gave him a coy little smile and blinked several times, "are you surprised to see me?" 

"Honestly, Myrtle? Yes." There was a thump outside and so Harry took a step towards the stairs, "No offense, but what are you doing here?" 

Myrtle smiled secretly at him, tilting her chin down and playing at bashful, "You always come to see me so I thought I’d surprise you for your birthday." She pouted, jutting out her chin, "but I got lost somewhere near Leeds and I missed it." 

She slid up next to him, Harry could feel the chill of her and there was another noise in the backyard. "How about we go up to my room--" he offered and her transparent eyes lit up. 

"Oh Harry, that’s quite naughty. What if someone catches us?" 

Harry turned and hurried up the stairs, "We can’t let that happen." He stopped short on the stairs and turned around to look at her. She was looking around the house in wonder, honestly, Harry didn’t know she could leave her bathroom. "Promise me, Myrtle, they can’t know you’re here." 

"I promise," Myrtle giggled and followed after him.

*

The next morning Harry awoke praying that it had been a dream. He lay in bed and he certainly _felt_ alone.

"Harry!" Vernon bellowed from downstairs. 

Myrtle giggled, "I think they know that I’m here!" 

Of course it wouldn’t be a dream, the worst things in his life rarely were. 

He fumbled around for his glasses and put them on as he threw his blanket off of him, "Stay here."

Myrtle made a half humming, half giggling noise in response and then Harry was headed into the kitchen. 

"What is the meaning of this?" Vernon asked, pointing to the dinner plates still in the sink. Harry suppressed an eye roll, he had been distracted by a banging in his room last night and had completely forgotten about them. "Ungrateful, lazy, child, we house you, feed you and in exchange we ask you to just help around the house and what do you do? Slack off, go do god knows what in your room with all your freaky school things." 

Harry knew all he had to do was bring up Sirius, the Dursleys were petrified of the mere thought of him, but at that instance the pipes above their heads cracked. "Sorry," he muttered and went about cleaning the dishes as Aunt Petunia swept in with her nose up and began cutting up a grapefruit for breakfast. The water sputtered a few times but it didn’t go out again. 

After eating his quarter of a grapefruit, Harry slipped back upstairs to have a slice or two of birthday cake. He fully expected Myrtle to reappear from the floorboards or for his Aunt to shriek in terror but everything was all together peaceful. He reread the last letter Sirius had sent him, just happy to see his handwriting, knowing his godfather was out there somewhere. When he heard his Uncle leave for work, and his Aunt and Dudley leave to go shopping, he trudged into the shower. 

By the time he was rinsing his hair he had honestly forgotten about Myrtle, besides her giggling and staring at him, she hadn’t really been all that difficult. 

"Harry." Myrtle said, he voice uncharacteristically quiet. He flinched and looked around--she wasn’t in the shower with him, thank god. He peaked out from behind the shower curtain to see her perched on the edge of the sink, frowning. "Your Aunt and Uncle are nothing like I thought they would be. They’re horrible people. Your cousin too. They’re worse than Olive Hornby." 

Harry thought this was all very surreal, Myrtle was usually annoying at worst and silly at best but, he didn’t know what to do with her sympathy. He held the shower curtain around himself tighter. 

"Olive Hornby and the other girls used to tease me terribly about my glasses, but they say such dreadful things to you just because you exist. At least when I left Hogwarts I knew my parents cared about me. Harry, next summer you must stay at Hogwarts, you can come visit me in my bathroom and maybe I’ll flush myself into the lake so we can enjoy the sun. It would be much better than having to come back here." 

"I--thanks Myrtle," Harry said, feeling rather touched even though he was still currently in the middle of a shower, "but I _have_ to come back here. They’re my legal guardians. I’ll probably go to the burrow soon, that’s my friend Ron’s home." 

"And they don’t shout at you there?" 

"No, no his family’s great." Harry grinned and Myrtle smiled. "Right. So." Harry let the shower curtain drop and he quickly rinsed his hair and finished his shower in case Myrtle felt like drifting over. When he grabbed a towel and stepped out of the shower however, it was like she had never been there. 

From then on, weird things started happening around the house. His Aunt, Uncle and cousin frequently ran out of hot water during their showers, the faucets would become faulty and squirt them as they brushed their teeth or washed their hands. The toilet overflowed biweekly for three weeks straight. Uncle Vernon had three plumbers over, all of which reported no problem. 

Harry took great pleasure from all of this, until one night his Uncle banged his fist on the stair case and ordered him to come down. He grabbed him by the shirt cuff, "You think you’re funny do you? I know you can’t do anything away from that school of yours. They’ll expel you. What are you doing to this house? Is it that godfather of yours? Is he doing this? Did you put him up to this?" 

"No." Harry said, staying perfectly still even as Uncle Vernon let go of him and went storming off into the living room to where Aunt Petunia and Dudley were watching telly. Harry sighed, knowing this wasn’t going to be the end of it, but then the power went out. 

"Harry." Vernon called sharply. 

"It’s not me, I swear." Harry replied in the dark and went to go find some candles. 

Just as Aunt Petunia lit the last candle in the living room, reassuring Dudley that he wouldn’t miss the end of his show, all the candles in the house blew out. Harry crept back, knowing their eyes were all on him. If this was Myrtle she needed to stop before it was Dobby all over again. He was just glad there were no outside party to witness this and embarrass his Aunt and Uncle this time. 

The lights in the living room flickered and Harry’s stomach dropped. The lights were off for a long moment and then they flickered again, this time Myrtle was hovering in the middle of the living room, looking like a corpse. 

Aunt Petunia let out a terrible scream and collapsed on the collapsed onto the couch in a faint. Uncle Vernon dove behind a chair. Dudley was slumped over in his chair, he must have fainted just like his mother. 

The lights went out again and then came back to an empty room. If both his Aunt and cousin weren’t unconscious and his Uncle not cowering behind the chair, he almost could believe nothing had even happened. 

"Harry this is all--" Vernon bellowed when he finally got to his feet, but then stopped short when he saw whatever look Harry currently had on his face, "--your freaky school’s fault. This never would have happened if we just sent you to a nice normal school again now there a--" his voice fell faint and he shook his head, no doubt trying to convince himself he hadn’t seen what he just saw. With his Uncle’s attention off of him, Harry raced up stairs. 

"What was that?" Harry whispered. Myrtle was sitting on his bed looking completely nonchalant. 

"They deserved it. I hope they died of fright." 

Harry smiled despite himself, "You can’t do that again." 

Myrtle glanced to him like she wasn’t going to listen in the slightest but then she stood and floated over to his nightstand, "Why is mass murderer Sirius Black writing to you?" 

"He’s my godfather." Harry explained simply and Myrtle’s eyes lit up in interest. He glanced to his door and then sat on his bed and began to tell her some parts of the previous year. 

The Dursleys were uncharacteristically silent the next day. He didn’t hear them speak until there was a knock on the door at nine at night. Harry looked up from his outdated copy of the Daily Prophet and went to the window, there was a nondescript car in the driveway. 

"Harry." His Aunt called, "Harry get down here now." 

Harry glanced to Myrtle who was leisurely floating around the room, they both sort of shrugged and it was so weird being _friendly_ with Moaning Myrtle, and then Harry went downstairs. All the blinds were pulled tightly shut and there was a man standing there. He had a briefcase with him, which he opened to reveal plants and candles. Harry just stared in surprise. This man wasn’t a wizard--at least--if he was, he was pretending not to be. 

In hushed allusions they talked about how they were ridding spirits from the house. They took several laps around the house, Dudley and Harry standing next to each other, both in stunned silence. Harry couldn’t believe his Uncle had called someone to walk around their house with a cross, to walk around burning sage and lavender all while calling out for spirits to leave. In total, they did four laps of the house and when the man left, he left a white candle burning in the living room. 

"Have we gone mad?" Dudley asked faintly and Aunt Petunia just hugged him tight. She had been looking faint all night. After that happened, Harry retreated back to his room. For a moment he didn’t see Myrtle and he actually thought it worked but then she appeared by the window. 

"My parents weren’t this daft when it came to magical things." Myrtle frowned, watching Uncle Vernon all but frog march the exorcist out under the cover of darkness. 

"My Aunt and Uncle are...exceptionally stupid." Harry said pulling out a slice of cake as a snack. 

"I suppose I should let them think I’ve left," she said lightly. Harry glanced to her, with his mouthful of cake and almost laughed. His Aunt and Uncle were going to be calling the man again before he went back to school. 

Myrtle didn’t continue haunting them so outright, she settled into a routine of subtlety Harry didn’t know she could do. She kept their shower and bath water just a bit too cold and seemed to take extreme delight in moving the furniture just an inch to the left, causing many a stubbed toe over the rest of the summer. 

By the time Mrs. Weasley’s letter arrived inviting him to the Quidditch World Cup, Uncle Vernon was swearing their diets were causing them all to become weak and clumsy. When Harry asked Myrtle what she was going to do now that he was leaving she just shrugged and told him she hadn’t made up her mind yet. She still hadn’t made up her mind by the time he left.

*

"Myrtle’s flooded her bathroom again." Ron said suddenly and Harry stopped short. Hermione gasped as she walked into the back of him.

"Are you alright?" she asked, coming to stand next to Ron. 

"Yeah--I just--" Harry headed into the bathroom, his trainers splashed in the water. It was the second week of school and he hadn’t seen Myrtle yet. A part of him thought she still might be haunting his aunt and uncle but…

"Harry!" Myrtle greeted him cheerfully, and had a smile for Ron and Hermione as well, which caused them both to stop short. "I was terribly lonely in my bathroom all by myself. Why did it take you so long to come visit me?" 

"Sorry, the beginning of term is always busy." Harry tried to explain. 

"Did you really haunt his aunt and uncle?" Ron asked and Myrtle smiled sweetly and fluttered her eyelashes. 

"Harry, please be gentle with your Uncle. He’s gets a bit jumpy around the toaster." 

"Brilliant," Ron whispered and Hermione looked to him, unsure of how to process the comment.

"Thanks," Harry smiled back, "I’ll keep that in mind."

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love. Please comment here or on [livejournal](http://hp-creatures.livejournal.com/274281.html) for the author to see. Author will remain anonymous until reveals later this month!


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